June is finally here, and we love it. The month of June is one of our favourite months as a garden owner; everything is fresh and green, and lots of flower's bloom in this time. It is the feeling of summer arriving and the prospect of many wonderful hours outside.  

The month of June of also synonymous with warmer weather, less rain, and longer days. The risk of frost at night is also gone.  

In this article, we will try to give an overview of the activities and thoughts we have, for our garden in June:  

Planting cucumbers, tomatoes, and chili in the greenhouse  

The temperature has finally reached a point, where it is absolutely safe to plant tomato-, chili-, and cucumber plants in the greenhouse.  

We have had quite a busy and hectic year, so we ended up buying premade plants from a plant centre. They have a certain size and are quite robust.  

When we plant these, we make sure to place them in a bucket with water approximately 30 minutes before planting out, so they will have soaked as much liquid as possible.  

Tomatoes:  

When planting tomatoes, it is good to plant them a little deeper, then you normally would with other plants – preferably so the ground will reach the bottom leaves. This way, you will achieve a stronger and bigger root system on your tomato plant.  

When your tomato plants start to grow, it is a good idea to pinch the side shoots – this way you will receive more tomatoes and therefore a better harvest.  

When the tomato plants grow big, we like to tie them up. We use little plant suspensers from Juliana, where a thin string can support the plants when it becomes tall and therefore is at risk to break.  

The following are good and robust tomatoes sorts:  

• Tumbler  
• Gemini F1 
• Elin F1 

Cucumber:  

We don’t have a lot of experience with cultivating cucumbers in our greenhouse, but this year we have decided to try it. The taste of a homegrown cucumber is very different from a store-bought cucumber.  

Cucumbers should preferably be watered daily, but be careful not to soak them in water. Cucumbers prefers, to not be in too much water, and it can therefore be beneficial to plant them on a little soil top. This ensures a good waterflow away from the cucumbers and the root neck of the cucumber will therefore not be constantly moist.  

Alternately, you can plant your cucumbers in a capillary box – the plant will soak up water from below and avoiding standing in water.  

• Cucumbers should be planted when the soil temperature is around 18 degrees – making June an excellent time.  
• Just add fertilizer during summer, as the plants uses a lot of energy to produce cucumbers.  
• Just like tomatoes, cucumbers need tying up when they reach a certain height and it is therefore also a good idea to pinch the side shoots to optimize the harvest.  

These are excellent cucumbers sorts.  

• Euphya  
• Romilino  
• Passandra  

Chili:  

Chilis thrive in the greenhouse. That is because they love warmth and light – and that is something the greenhouse can manage.  

• Remember to let the chili plants dry out between watering, followed by a thorough watering. This method increases the flavour and the strength of the fruit.  
• When chili plants blooms, the first 6-8 flowers should be nipped off – this ensures that the plant won’t use energy to place fruits this early and instead uses the energy to become a little more robust and in time, produce more fruits.  
• When your chili plant has blossomed, carefully shake your plant daily – this ensures the flowers being pollinated. After they have become pollinated, the flower will fall off, and the chili fruit will emerge where the flower used to be.  

Watering, watering, watering.  

A general theme for June is watering. When the sun is shining bright – and it does quite a lot – the plants get very thirsty.  

Outside the greenhouse, we water everyt two to three days. Every pot gets a thorough watering. The water can easily evaporate through clay pots, whereas plastic pots hold the water better.  

There is not much shade in our greenhouse, and the temperature quickly rises in our little glass house. In here, we water our pots minimum every other day. Our plants are in large pots, which makes it possible sometimes to skip a watering day. We have chosen plants for our greenhouse that withstands a little drying out; for example, geranium, and other diverse Mediterranean plants like sage and rosemary. The thirstier plants, like tomatoes, cucumbers, and basil are placed in capillary boxes, to only water the boxes now and then, and the plants can absorb the amount of water they need. This year, we are trying Juliana’s irrigation system, which we are very excited for. We hope this will mean fewer hours with the garden hose and the watering will be more effective.  

Ventilation in the greenhouse  

A lot of plants and a lot of sun creates a humid environment, and therefore ventilation is very important in order to maintain healthy and good plants without any diseases.  

The greenhouse becomes really humid, which increases the risk that the plants will be attacked with diseases like mildew and mould.  Our door to the greenhouse has therefore been open nonstop since May. Our Grand Oase greenhouse from Juliana have a smart function, where the roof lifts up at high temperatures, thus creating a good ventilation from above.  

Shade in the greenhouse.  

Another important aspect, when it comes to greenhouses, is shade.  

Our garden doesn’t have a single tree and therefore we have no possibility to place our greenhouse in order to get a little shade during the day and we therefore had to find another solution.  

We instead use blinds – also from Juliana – that you easily set up with a little help from suctions cups. This creates a little shade in the greenhouse in our very sunny garden. 

 

 

Kitchen garden  

Seeding and practical activities  

In May we sowed. The first sprouts have started to emerge and we are very excited to be able to harvest delicious greens for dinner. We continuously make sure to thin out the plants, so they are not to close.  

If you haven’t started to sow yet, fear not. It is not too late and you can still make it. It could for example be salad, beans, radishes, and herbs. Generally, it is a good idea to sow salad with approximately two to three weeks interval; this way you get a continuous harvest and you ensure fresh salad sprouts during summer.  

You can also sow edible summer flowers in the kitchen garden, for example marigold. There is nothing more wonderful than to decorate your salad with beautiful and colourful flowers. Another important thing to do in June, is weeding your potatoes. It is important, for your potatoes to be underground, to not be exposed to sunlight, as they will turn green and poisonous.  

It is furthermore a good idea to place an insect net or fibre cloth over your cabbage, if you wish to avoid cabbage caterpillars. And you really do, because there is nothing more gross than a cabbage bed filles with larva.  

Harvest 

If you were an early bird, you can often start to harvest salad, radishes, and early summer potatoes in June.  

We have asparagus and rhubarb in our garden, that we have enjoyed in May and will continue to in June. We stop the harvest around the end of June as we do not wish to exhaust the plant – and even though it can be hard to stop, we want good plants again next year.  

It is going quite good in the tea- and herb bed; sage, thyme, parsley, lemon balm, and oregano have all grown quite tall and can already now be harvested. All are plants, that keeps coming back every year.  

Watering and fertilizer  

Remember to water your plants, if there are no rainy days in June. They especially need regular watering when they are new and not so robust. It is best to water in the morning and at night where the evaporation is at minimum.  

We thoroughly fertilized our soil in our kitchen garden in the fall to have good nutritious soil for our raised beds. If you haven’t fertilized yet, you need to add fertilizer a couple of times during summer, so the plants will have enough nutrients to grow.  

Flower garden  

The onion growth in spring  

We have had various spring onion growths in our herbaceous perennial beds, that are now on its last legs.  

Onion growths, like daffodil, can be left on the ground, and they will return the next year.  

When the tulips are done blooming we cut the stem, but we leave the leaves a little longer. When the leaves have withered, the onion is dug up and placed to dry before they are placed in storage in our shed. In the fall we put the tulip onions out again, so we next year have beautiful tulips around the garden.  

Edible flowers and plants  

Our plants in our herbaceous perennial beds were chosen mostly because they are beautiful. It is significant to point out that most of the blooming growth are edible.  

We have blooming horned violets, that are decorative in a salad.  

Watering and tending  

Our herbaceous perennial bed is a couple of years old and have grown to a certain size, which makes them more robust to drying out.  

We therefore do not water out beds as often as we water our pots, however the bed does get more water if there are lots of full sun and not rain.  

Luckily our beds are almost clear of weed. This is because we, in the spring, make sure to weed through and because we planted our plants close together.  

 

 

 

That was all we got. We wish you a lovely and flourishing June filled with bright nights and lots of garden and greenhouse fun.  

 

Best wishes 

Nanna og Frederik